F 74 
.H5 L6 
Copy 1 



HELL LET LOOSE 



The Story of a Great Wrong! 

The Haverhill Riots 



A Crime Against American Liberty 
and Free Sveech. 



LEST WE FORGET! 



LET US BELIEVE that the whole of truth can never do harm to the whole 
of virtue ; and remember that in order to get the whole of truth, you must allow 
every man, right or wrong, freely to utter his conscience, and protect him in so 
doing. Entire unshackled freedom for every man's life, no mailer what his doc- 
trine — the safety of free discussion, no matter how wide its range. The com- 
munity which dares not protect its humblest and most hated member in free utter- 
ance of his opinions, no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves — 
WENDELL PHILLIPS. 



''Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall 
make you Free/' 

—Jesus. 



Truth Lives to Bless All, and Break the Shackles 
of Fear, Hate and Superstition. 

— Leyden, 



THE DANGER AHEAD ! 

What may be expeded in the United States of America 
if Hyphenated Americans Get Control. 



The Thrilling Story 



OF 



Lawlessness, Mobocracy and Sectarian Bigotry 
AT HAVERHILL, MASS., 

When an American Citizen was mobbed for daring to 
speak upon the que^ion — 

**Shall Public Funds be Given to Sectarian Schools" 
The Speaker, Rev. Thomas E. Leyden, 

Preacher, Publisher, Printer was insulted, his life threatened, and 
denied the right of Free Speech by the Romish Mob. 

Shall the blot on the fair name of the City of Haverhill, stand ? Shall 

the ailen enemy in our mid^ be permitted to terrorize and 

intimidate true Americans for daring to tell the truth ? 



READ - - REFLECT - - VOTE 

Stand for God and American Liberty. 



F'/i 

Ms Lb 



Copyright. 1921 
Evangelist Leyden Publishing Co. 

SOMERVILLE, MaSS. 



MAY 20 1921 



©C1A619293 



THE STORY 

or THE 

HAVERHILL RIOTS. 



On the morning of iVpril 4th, the citizens of Boston, 
Mass., gazed in amazement on great scare headlines on the 
first page of every daily paper. 

The PosVs flaming announcement read as foUoivs: 

BIG RIOT RAGES IN HAVERHILL, 

MANY BEATEN; MILITIA IS OUT. 

City Hall Stormed by Angry Mob while Rev. Thomas E. Ley- 
den was hidden in the Aldermanic Chamber. — Resentment at Anti- 
Catholic Meeting Starts Trouble — Mayor Forbids Meeting, but 
Crowd Cries for Vengeance — Houses of Citizens Are Stoned. 

Windows of Buildings Broken by Stones Thrown by Infur- 
iated Men. 

Minister Among Those Who Are Assaulted by the Mad Band 
of Rioters. 

The Boston Globe told the Story in its headlines as follows: 

10,000 IN WILD HAVERHILL RIOT. 

Militia Called out to Suppress Mob That Gets Beyond Po- 
lice—Trouble Begins at Leyden Meeting. 

City Hall and Police Station Attacked with Missiles Torn 
from Streets. 

National Club is Wrecked and Officer and Civilian Are Brut- 
ally Beaten. 

The Boston Jouniat broke the News in this fashion: 

MAYOR CALLS OUT MILITIA TO 
FIGHT HAVERHILL MOB. 

Crowd Attacks City Hall, Rings False Fire Alarms and Over- 
powers Police. 

An^i-Catholic Lecture Cause of the Trouble. 

Private Residences and Hotels Also Objects of the Crowd's 
Hostility. 



The Herald's heading ran as follows: 
TROOPS ARE CALLED OUT FOR HAVERHILL RIOT. 
Anti-Catholic Orator Stirs Mob of 8000 to Frenzy. 
Dr. Thomas E. Leyden, "The American Luther of the New 
Reformation," Endeavors to Hold Meeting at City Hall — Hund- 
reds of Panes of Glass Broken — Shots Fired — False Alarms Kept 
Firemen Dashing About — Police Helpless — Mayor Calls Out Co. F. 

In these bold headlines the press of the city, where 
stands the cradle of liberty, epitomized the latest Roman 
Catholic outrage in the nation-wide systematic war which 
Knights of Columbus and other "props of the hierarchy" 
are waging on the organic law of our land. 

It is a fact worthy of notice that this example of crimi- 
nal lawlessness follows an exactly similar exhibition of 
Roman Catholic defiance of the constitution, the laws of 
the state, and the life and limb of the citizens, which oc- 
curred in the city of Chicago just one month earlier. 



A RECORD OF CRIME. 

Here is a partial record of the crimes committed in this law- 
less orgy by the faithful subjects of the sovereign on the Tiber in 
their successful effort to trample underfoot the constitutional 
guarantee of freedom of speech and public assembly, as reported 
in the Bostoa and Haverhill papers. 

The Rev. Robert Atkinson, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
church, assaulted in city hall. 

Patrolman J. R. Bridgman, cruelly beaten while attempting 
to arrest one of the criminals. 

Charles Jackson, dragged from the National Club and terri- 
bly beaten. 

Corporal Thomas Payne, wounded by a piece of plate glass 
thrown by the rioters. 

A patriot youth, named Chase, shamefully beaten and another 
young man who was chased by the mob and overtaken on Fleet 
street, beaten into almost unconsciousness. 

Edward McDonald, murderously assaulted by the mob. 

The City Hall Police Station windows smashed, doors broken 
down and other damage inflicted upon public property. 

The National Club room wrecked and furniture thrown to 
the streets. 

A number of halls of patriotic clubs and societies visited, and 



wanton destruction inflicted on property. The Academy of Music 
Building in which the A. O. U. M. hall is located, suffered the 
greatest damage. 

The private homes of certain Protestant and patriotic citizens 
wantonly attacked, the windows being smashed, and other destruc- 
tion of property inflicted, while the unprotected women and child- 
ren in these homes — refined American wives and daughters — were 
terrorized by this twentieth century exhibition of repetition of 
Roman Catholic history in the papacy's undying war on liberal 
government and the just rights of the people. 



A NIGHT OF TERROR 

I 

During- the night, pandemonium reigned in Haverhill, 
as lawless thousands made the long hours hideous in giv- 
ing this impressive illustration of the result of "Roman 
Catholic religious training." 

From time to time amid the incessant din, occasioned 
by the crashing of windows, the breaking down of doors, 
the ringing of fire alarms, the wrecking of building-s and 
the criminal assaults upon peaceful citizens and ofHcers of 
the law, rose the shrill cry, "We want Leyden, we will kill 
him" ''Why don't you give him over to us, we'll take care 
of him," and other exclamations which proved how well 
parochial schools had taught these subjects of the pope to 
hate our constitutional provision for public speech and as- 
sembly. 

THE STORY OF THE CRIME 

Here is an outline story of this latest exhibition of 
Roman Catholic disloyalty to our constitution. 

Rev. Thomas E. Leyden. a protestant minister and a 
well known patriotic lecturer, was invited to deliver some 
addresses dealing with the very vital question, "Should the 
state appropriate public funds for sectarian schools?" This 
is a question which the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Mas- 
sachusetts wishes placed on the Index Prohibitorum. Nei- 
ther press nor public speakers must discuss this question 
from the democratic viewpoint if Rome can prevent it. 

Mayor Bartlett, of Haverhill, refused to grant the 
permit for the use of the city hall for the lecture. 



This called forth a strong protest from the Protestant 
Ministers Association on the ground that it violated the 
constitutional right of free speech. 

The municipal council took up the question, and, after 
full discussion, gave the necessary permission. 

On Sunday, April 2nd, the lecturer appeared to exer- 
cise his constitutional rights, fortified by the permission 
given by the city of Haverhill. 

On the platform were Rev. J. Franklin Babb, pastor 
of the Union Congregational church, and Dr. Herbert E. 
Wales, the chairman of the day. 

Lawlessness was in evidence from almost the start, 
the singing of "Sweet Adeline," hooting, coughing, shout- 
ing became more and more marked until finally the meet- 
ing was broken up by the rioters. Even during the prayer 
by the Congregational clergyman, the Roman hoodlums 
testified to their respect for God by noisy demonstrations. 
Dr. Leyden requested the audience to sing America, some- 
thing which doubtless gave ofifense to the subjects of the 
pope as from thence on the determined efifort to break up 
the meeting showed that the rioters present had no fear of 
the guardians of law and order. Here are a few words taken 
down during Dr. Leyden's attempt to speak by a reporter 
for the Boston Journal. 

Friends, it remains for you this afternoon, who oppose me, to 
prove whether you believe in American liberty or not. If I am 
not telling you the truth there is enough law beneath the Stars 
and Stripes to get justice under it. Because you crush the speak- 
er's voice, you will do no harm to the speaker, but you will do 
harm to try to crush liberty, in the city hall of Haverhill, this 
afternoon. It is no one but a coward who would insult a man in 
the position I am in. If the police of Haverhill do not keep order 
(noise and shouting drowns voice of speaker) I will appeal to the 
governor (tumult and disorder). 

"If I do not tell you the truth you have recourse to law, but 
one of our bulwarks is free speech, the right of an American to 
express his opinion, and when you deny that right (voice of 
speaker drowned by noise) you are not insulting me, but Almighty 
God, and America and the Constitution. 

Soon the noise became so great that only a few words 
of the speaker, such as "if the police of Haverhill," could 
be heard by the reporter, above the din. Someone in the 
audience shouted "who's your undertaker?" 

An attempt to deliver a prayer was greeted by cries 



and hisses, and Dr. Babb was called on to dismiss the meet- 
ing-. He said, "As an American citizen, I never was so 
ashamed in my life. I was never so ashamed of a police 
force. I want to tell you men who have broken up this 
meeting that you have done more to help Dr. Leyden, than 
if you had worked for fifty years, (noise and confusion.) 

The meeting was thus broken up by the lawless ene- 
mies of free speech. Intolerant Rome had triumphed on the 
soil of Massachusetts, the sacred right guaranteed by the 
constitution had been trampled underfoot. The city of Ha- 
verhill had been flouted by the enemies of law and order, a 
stigma had been placed on the name of Massachusetts. 

THE GATHERING STORM 

The exhibition of shameful inefficiency on the part of 
the city authorities and the police department emboldened 
the criminals and they prepared for Monday night, when 
they proposed to deal a crushing blow to the federal con- 
sitution's guarantee of freedom of speech and assembly, 
and to show just how men who have received Roman Cath- 
olic training and education in the parochial schools regard 
our federal constitution, the laws of the state and the sanc- 
tity of the life and the property of those who are brave 
enough to defend the free democracy of Jefferson and the 
other great founders of this republic. 

In the old days, Rome taught and practiced the shame- 
ful teachings that heretics should be despoiled of their pro- 
perty. The Roman Catholic mob of Haverhill who mur- 
derously assaulted and brutally beat a number of Protest- 
ant citizens, and who attacked the quiet homes of Alder- 
man Hoyt, Dr. Wales and others, crashing windows, des- 
troying property and terrifying almost into hysteria the 
helpless women and children in the homes, showed in a 
startling manner, that Rome in America today, has not 
traveled very far from the Rome of the Inquisition. 

MONDAY NIGHT AT CITY HALL 

Dr. Leyden is an elderly man. but he has the courage 
of an old crusader. 

He was billed to speak on Monday night, the consti- 



tution had guaranteed him the right, and the city of Haver- 
hill had granted him permission. 

No one but the subjects of a foreign sovereign, would 
dare to question that right, when to question would be to 
admit disloyalty to the federal constitution and its emblem. 

But there were those Avho knew how for years Romr 
has been poisoning the wells of free government in our 
midst, and foreseeing exactly what did happen, they coun- 
seled weak surrender before the lawless traitors to the 
constitutional guarantees. 

Not so. Dr. Leyden, he stood for a freeman's rights. 
He was loath to believe that the constitution and the flag 
of free America would be defied and insulted even by those 
who owe their allegiance to the foreign sovereign on the 
Tiber. 

The police, after 150 people had entered the hall, locked 
the doors. 

Dr. Leyden was urged to cancel his lecture, by Alder- 
man Hoyt, but refused. In the meantime a great crowd had 
assembled in the streets, and a diversion was created inside 
the hall when a brick crashed through the windows and al- 
most struck Mrs. Grace H, Oatman, a former member of 
the school committee. 

Outside the hall the mob grew more and more menac- 
ing. Strident voices and sinister threats rose above the gen- 
eral din. The mob prepared to rush the door ; the police 
threatened to shoot if the attempt was made. The lights in 
the building flashed on and oft" ; someone was tampering 
with the switches. The women became panic stricken and 
fled to a room below. Finally Dr. Leyden appeared, .pale 
but cool and brave. He commenced to speak and instantly 
the uproar began, jeers, hoots and singing drowned his 
voice. Rev. Robert Atkinson, who wa's in the audience, rose 
to protest and was instantly roughhoused by the mob, who 
attempted to rush him down the stairs ; police rescued him. 

Seeing the utter hopelessness of attempting to cope 
with the situation, Dr. Leyden left the platform justas the 
rioters crashed in a glass door that opened onto one of the 
fire escapes, and one hundred of Rome's servitors rushed 
in shrieking, *'We want Leyden !" By that time stones and 



sticks were raining throughout the building blended with 
the sinister cry of the rioters and the shouting of the police. 
Again Roman Catholics had trampled over the federal 
constitution and defied the laws of the commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. 

OUTSIDE THE CITY HALL 

Outside the hall things went from bad to worse. That 
this defiance of law and order was no sporadic outbreak 
was clearly shown by the fact that Haverhill furnished 
only a part of these lawless rioters. From all directions 
came these 

NIGHT RIDERS FOR THE POPE 

Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Newburyport and Ports- 
mouth, yielded their quotas. Freedom was to receive a 
crushing blow, so from eight to ten thousand subjects of 
the sov^ereign on the Tiber assembled to show America the 
difference between the papal theory of government and the 
democracy of our federal constitution. 

They succeeded! 

The mob of Monday night was not content with forci- 
bly breaking up the meeting and attempting the life of the 
speaker. It proceeded to wreak its vengeance on public 
property. 

Had not the city of Haverhill dared to permit an Amer- 
ican citizen to exercise his constitutional right to criticize 
Rome and institute a comparison between her parochal 
schools and the free schools of the republic? For this of- 
fense were not the subjects of the pope fully justified in 
smashing windows, breaking doors and committing other 
depredations on the city hall and jail? And since they 
could not find the speaker, to do personal violence to him, 
they proceeded forthwith to brutally beat and murderously 
assault a number of law abiding citizens whose only offense 
was their loyalty to the constitution of this nation. 

Next, these upholders of the Roman Catholic brand of 
good citizenship, loyalty and patriotism, proceeded to visit 
and wreck various patriotic club rooms, then they remem- 
bered that Alderman Hoyt, commissioner of public safety, 
and Dr. Wales had displayed an offensive interest in up- 



holding the constitutional right of freedom of speech which 
ill accorded with the theory and practice of the church of 
the index and the inquisition, so they proceeded to break all 
the windows in their homes. Dr. Wales' piazza was 
wrecked and the windows of his neighbors' houses were 
smashed in on every hand. Defenseless women and child- 
ren were frightened into almost hysteria. 

NOT LOCAL OR SPORADIC 

The Haverhill mob was but one example of a nation- 
wide campaign of criminal lawlessness and but one phase 
of a many sided war Avhich^the Romin Catholic hierarchy 
and its props, the Knights of Columbus, the American Fed- 
eration of Catholic Societies, the Hibernians, the Jesuits 
and other organizations are waging upon the organic law 
of our land. 

Furthermore, let no one suppose that this papal exhi- 
bition of intolerance and hatred of liberty for those who 
dare to challenge Rome is sporadic, or that the tens of 
thousands of Knights of Columbus and other props of the 
hierarchy who participated in the criminal lawlessness were 
merely the ignorant and unrepresentative members of the 
Roman Catholic communion. 

This was merely one example of exhibitions of intol- 
erance, religious bigotry and hatred of our constitutional 
guarantees that are constantly finding expression in words 
and acts of the leaders of political Romanism in all 
branches of government. 

Thus, for example, the Boston Globe of March 27, less 
than ten days before the Haverhill papal riot, published a 
column's report of an address before the American Feder- 
ation of Catholic Societies by C. S. Sullivan, of the munici- 
pal court of Charlestown, in which "Judge" Sullivan char- 
acterized the "Masons, Knights of Pythias and Odd Fel- 
lows," as organizations "to be combatted" as "leadiu'g' into 
darkness and error." He sneered at the Boy Scouts, de- 
clared that Catholics must repel the energies of the Massa- 
chusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Child- 
ren, and the Massachusetts Children's Aid Society, because 
they had dared to oppose the appropriations of public funds 
for sectarian institutions. 



The Guardians of Liberty consisting of almost a mil- 
lion of high minded patriotic citizens under the leadership 
of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, was cited by this Romanist judge 
as evidence that bigotry was rampant. 

Mayor James M. Curley, of Boston, is on record under 
his own signature, as declaring that "the Guardians of Li- 
berty ought not be permitted to exist on American soil," 
while within the last few weeks, Congressman James A. 
Gallivan, of South Boston, Mass., ha;^ introduced into con- 
gress a bill which, if passed, would deal a deadly blow 
through the legislative arm of the national government to 
the organic law of our land, by an attempt to abridge free- 
dom of religious discussion and freedom of the press. This 
militant representative of the papal system of government, 
furthermore, in his pending bill would invest an executive 
officer with the autocratic power of a Russian bureaucrat, 
by which he could destroy a great and needed publication 
without permitting the accused to have the right of the 
democratic method of trial by jury. 

We cite these cases wherein the true spirit of Rome is 
so luminously shadowed forth by judge, mayor and con- 
gressman, as well as by the papal mob, for two reasons : 
(1) because they show that when we have intolerance and 
bigotry enthroned on the bench, in executive seats and in 
the legislative forum of government, it is not strange that 
it flames forth among the rank and file whose religious 
prejudices have been nourished in parochial schools and 
further fed in secret oath bound organizations, (2) because 
all these instances are found in a single diocese, indeed, the 
homes of officials and rioters alike are found for the most 
part within twenty miles of the cardinal's palace in Boston. 
And what is more, the} are strictly typical of the un-Ameri- 
can intolerance everywhere in evidence where Rome has 
felt herself sufficiently strong to exercise the boycott. 
Without the Roman Catholic boycott that has been so 
mercilessly employed from ocean to ocean since the hier- 
archy began its campaign to make America dominantly 
Roman Catholic, the scores of exhibitions of criminal law- 
lessness that have disgraced the republic since the Knights 
of Columbus were organized would never have been possi- 
ble. 



INSULTING MASSACHUSETTS 

The daily papers published the statement that Chief 
Marshall Mack declared that if Dr. Leyden returned to Ha- 
verhill to exercise his constitutional rights he would be ar- 
rested for inciting riot. Dr. Leyden does not credit this 
statement, and let us hope that it was merely what the 
enemies of our constitution desired him to say, for if Mas- 
sachusetts has become such a subservient dependency of 
the sovereign of the Tiber that she will penalize a man for 
exercising his constitutional rights, and allow those guilty 
of treason to the constitution, crime against the state and 
the lives and property of her citizens, to go free, then Mas- 
sachusetts should cease to ask a place in the sisterhood of 
states that profess to uphold the organic law of the Nation. 



BOSTON EDITORIAL COMMENTS 

The Boston press, though treating the riot as its im- 
portance required in the news columns, made for the most 
part no adequate editorial protest against these thousands 
of Roman Catholics who had added to their disloyalty to 
our constitution, murderous assaults upon life and the wan- 
ton destruction of property. There were three notable ex- 
ceptions, that of the Boston Daily Herald, Evening Trans- 
cript and The Christian Science Daily Monitor; the last 
named paper published more than a double column article 
which was very able, dispassionate and sound from the 
standpoint of democracy, law and order. The Herald in an 
editorial, after pointing out that the fundamental right of 
free speech can not be safely abandoned, said : 

"If the intruding visitor was a weak man, with no message 
deserving of intelligent consideration, he would have done small 
harm, surely not enough to justify anybody in resorting to viol- 
ence. If on the other hand he had something important to say, it 
should have been met in the free form of argument, and not in a 
window glass contest. Whichever waj^ the speaker be regarded, 
therefore, his treatment was unjust and un-American moreover it 
was a little odd to undertake a riot in advance of the oJEFending 
speaker's saying anything, offensive or otherwise." 

The Boston Transcript, probably the ablest evening 
paper in America, and one of the most important dailies 
from a literary viewpoint in the New World, published an 



editorial that had all the true ring of the Boston of the older 
day, the Boston of vision, of broad culture and fundamen- 
tal democratic idealism. This editorial, entitled "A Dis- 
grace to Massachusetts," so clearly and luminously states 
the case for democracy, that we give it below in full. 

We are not much accustomed to lynch law in Massachusetts. 
The outbreak at Haverhill is therefore as surprising as it is dis- 
graceful. Thomas E. Leyden, the man whom 10,000 rioters ap- 
parently sought to lynch, had license to speak in the Haverhill 
city hall. He had therefore as much right to express his sentiments 
there as Governor McCall had to address the legislature, or Bishop 
Lawrence or Cardinal O'Connell to speak to congregations in their 
respective cathedrals. Standing on his platform there. Leyden is 
entitled to the protection of the whole power of the commonwealth 
of Massachusetts, and if that does not suffice, of the United States 
of America. What he is going to say cuts no figure. He speaks on 
his responsibility, and may and should be held to a rigid account- 
ability for au}^ libelous, scurrilous or seditious words that he may 
utter. But his right to speak and to utter his opinions is absolutely 
sacred. In this state, which was founded upon the principle of 
freedom of opinion and worship, no more insolent outrage can be 
offered to the law than to question that right. 

Evidently the rioters at Haverhill were bent upon wreaking 
personal injury, possibly murder, upon the man who intended to 
speak at the city hall. They did attack innocent men, and they at- 
tacked the houses and smashed the windows of ministers who were 
in sympathy with Mr. Leyden. If this sort of violence is not re- 
pressed and properly punished, the lawless insolence that it rep- 
resents will grow, and we shall have an end of the rights and lib- 
erties to establish which, our fathers came into the wilderness. 



THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE 

Let no man cloud the issue, it is first and last political 
and is vital alike to the individual and the state. 

We war on no man's religion; on that subject our only 
concern is to preserve religious freedom. 

Our battle is, first, last and all the time merely to pre- 
serve the liberal democracy of Jefferson and the other 
founders and masterbuilders of this republic against all 
forms of encroachment and the insidious wiles of old world 
despotisms which antagonize democracy, whether under 
the cloak of monarchy, bureacracy, autocracy or hierarchy. 

We repeat, we war on no man's religion until it wars 
on our free democratic government and the constitution 
of the United States. 



The issue is just here. There is in the United States 
today, two antagonistic theories of government at war with 
each other. They are as opposite as light and darkness. On 
the one hand we have our free democracy whose distin- 
guishing glories are : 

(1) Popular sovereignty without any recognition of an over 
lordship on the part of church or hierarchy. 

(2) Freedom of speech, press and assernbly. 

(3) Freedom of religious, political, social and economic dis- 
cussions. 

(4) Absolute divorce between church and state. 

(5) No special favors or privileges to any church, and no 
public funds for sectarian institutions. 

(6) Popular non-sectarian education. 

Opposed to this splendid free democratic system which 
promotes intellectual hospitality and discourages bigotry, 
intolerance and dogmatic or creedal antagonisms, we have 
the papal system of government, which : 

(1) Condemns popular sovereignty that does not recognize 
the church. (See ex cathedra utterances of Leo XIII and 
Pius X, the last two popes.) 

(2) Demands union of church and state wherever and when- 
ever Catholics become dominant. 

(3) ' Condemns freedom of research, speech, press and as- 
sembly, such as is fostered by our free democracy. 

(4) Condemns the recognition of equal rights for all churches. 

(5) Demands public funds for Roman Catholic institutions. 

(6) Condemns non-sectarian education in Protestant lands, 
and demands that education shall be in the hands of the 
Roman Catholic church in Catholic lands. 

The papal system of government as outlined above is 
resolutely set forth in the ex cathedra utterances of the last 
three popes, and is being militantly pressed against our free 
democratic system by the representatives of the hierarchy 
in America today. 

(1) In the war on our public schools. 

(2) In the lawless mobocracy and war on freedom of as- 
sembly and speech throughout the country. 

(3) In attempted legislation in congress, to abridge freedom 
of press and to substitute bureaucracy for trial by jury. 

(4) In efforts to secure public funds for sectarian institutions. 

(5) In the nation-wide Roman Catholic un-American boycott. 

Here we are in the presence of a war being waged ag- 
gressively against the free democracy of this country by 



those who are proving that they yield their first allegiance 
to the rival sovereignty and its system of rule. 

Here is the issue. Here must the battle be fought. It 
is a war between the fr^e democracy and the noble liberal- 
ism of the Protestant Reformation and the democratic era 
on the one hand, and the autocratic antagonistic claims of 
the papal sovereignty on the other. 

SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS 

The papers declared that the police were powerless to 
control "the fury of the enraged thousands." Now who 
stimulated that fury? Not Dr. Leyden who had not been 
permitted to speak, yet someone fostered it. 

Ten thousand men do not go from various cities and 
towns and exhibit a wild and lawless fury that would put 
to shame the howling dervishes of the desert, without some 
one carefully nourished it. 

The rioters were ardent Roman Catholics. When May- 
or Bartlett addressed them, some one in the crowd shouted, 
"three cheers for the Catholics of Haverhill !" and they 
were given in thunderous tones. 

Why has not the machinery of justice been set in mo- 
tion to find out who were the arch conspirators responsible 
for this shameful exhibition of mobocracy which vividly 
calls to mind the anarchist riots of Chicago some years 
ago? 

Then the government was swift footed in its search for 
the responsible principals. 

These questions suggest still others. Let us suppose 
that instead of Knights of Columbus and other subjects of 
the pope, these criminals who trampled upon the constitu- 
tion of the United States, who defied the laws of the com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts and without the shadow of an 
excuse, wantonly destroyed public and private property, 
while criminally assaulting peacable citizens, had been Sof 
cialists, or anarchists, would the government have made 
no effort to bring the criminals to the bar of justice? 

Few citizens of Massachusetts have forgotten the hys- 
teria of the press and the clamor of Roman Catholic speak- 
ers and papers for swift and heavy punishment for the 



alleged rioters in the Lawrence Mill outbreak. At that time 
it was claimed that the Socialists had not shown a proper 
respect for the flag, and Catholic orators and editors seized 
upon the alleged disrespectful remarks as excuse for at- 
tacks on socialism as wanting in loyalty and patriotism. 
The leaders were promptly arrested and imprisoned, but 
here we find defiance of the constitution and state laws, and 
crimes committed against persons and property, and no 
serious attempt on the part of the commonwealth to bring 
the leaders to the bar of justice and administer to them the 
swift punishment that must be impartially administered to 
all law breakers if justice is to be maintained, the laws res- 
pected and the constitution upheld. 

The city of Haverhill, the birthplace and childhood 
home of John Greenleaf Whittier, America's poet of free- 
dom and apostle of the democratic principle of intellectual 
hospitality — Haverhill, on the banks of the picturesque 
Merrimac, like Amesbury, is almost a shrine for lovers of 
freedom and believers in justice and the rights of men, or 
the democratic system of government, much as Concord, 
the home of Emerson, is a shrine to the lovers of the larger 
freedom. Henceforth, however, Haverhill will have an evil 
distinction in the annals of our republic, henceforth the birth 
town of the poet of freedom will bear an indelible stain, 
for here the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech 
and assembly was trampled underfoot, by a lawless mob, 
who imagine that they will hasten the day when America 
will become dominantly Roman Catholic if they can forci- 
bly suppress freedom of religious discussion. 

WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 

Let every patriot forget all jealousies, all personali- 
ties, prejudices and rivalries. Let everyone unite against 
the aggressive enemy of fundamental democracy. The 
cause is above all else — all persons and all organizations. 
The danger is far graver than you imagine ; the hope lies 
in union, consecration to duty, enthusiasm and lofty patriot- 
ism. 

Here are some further lines by Whittier which sound 
as though they were written for this very hour, when 
Rome has placed so deep a stain on the city of his birth 



and the commonwealth he so loved, in her relentless war 
on the noble freedom to which he consecrated his richest 
gifts. 

Up the hillside, down the glen 
Rouse the sleeping citizen; 
Summon out the might of men! 

Like a lion growling low, — 
Like a night-storm rising slow, — 
Like the tread of unseen foe, — 

It is coming, — it is nigh! 

Stand your homes and altars by; 

On your own free thresholds die. 

Clang the bells in your spires; 
On the gray hills of your sires 
Fling to Heaven your signal-fires. 

From Washuset, lone and bleak 

Unto Berkshire's tallest peak, 

Let the flame-tongued heralds speak. 

O, for God and duty stand, 
Heart to heart and hand to hand. 
Round the old graves of the land. 

Whoso shrinks or falters now. 
Whoso to the yoke would bow, 
Brand the craven dn his brow! 



ROME AND DEMOCRACY IN 
BOLD CONTRAST. 



How the Haverhill Mob Vindicated the Past and Present 
Spirit of the Papacy. 



Significance of the Burning in Effigy of Free Speech. 

Protestant Democracy Replies to Rome— An Appeal to 
True American Patriots. 



In the preceding chapter we gave the story of the papal 
riot in Haverhill, Mass., illustrating so boldly and convinc- 
ingly the dominating spirit of the Roman church in her age- 
long ceaseless war on freedom of religious discussion. It 
was an impressive object lesson, showing far more eloquent- 
ly than words the result of parochial school education, 
Roman Catholic training and the evil influence of secret 
oath-bound societies which are seeking to substitute the 
papal system of government for the broad, tolerant and no- 
ble freedom of our Protestant democracy. 

It was a typical, and not an excep'tional illustration, 
being merely one of scores of exhibitions of Roman Catho- 
lic religious prejudice, intolerance and hatred of our federal 
constitution that have marked the successive steps in 
Rome's campaign to make America dominantly Roman 
Catholic. 

These exhibitions of criminal lawlessness have beconle 
so alarmingly frequent since the organization of the 
Knights of Columbus, that unless promptly checked, we 
shall soon have a nation-wide scandal not unlike the reign 
of terror and defiance of the constitution and state laws 
which marked the tragic davs when that other oath-bound 



secret body, the Molly Maguires, placed an indelible stam 
upon the escutcheon of Pennsylvania. 

In this chapter we wish to show how in bold and 
pleasing contrast, American Protestant democracy answers 
intolerant Rome. But before doing this we wish to revert 
to one incident of the papal riot. 

On that wild night in April when Haverhill was taken 
over by the Knights of Columbus and other "props of the 
papal hierarchy," the mob, not content with trampling the 
constitution underfoot, destroying municipal property, 
wrecking homes of Protestants and making criminal as- 
saults on law abiding citizens, in retaliation for not being 
permitted to lynch Dr. Leyden, these true sons of the 
church of the Inquisition committed an act supremely in- 
teresting to psychologists, as showing how unerringly a 
mob reflects the dominant spirit of the institution it repre- 
sents. 

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ROMISH MOB 

To the students of history and psychology, alike, few 
things are more suggestively instructive than the action ol 
a mob as reflecting the master thought of the power behind 
it. 

Here reason, policy and all hypocritical pretense are 
thrown to the winds and amid the storm of primal passion 
is seen in naked sincerity, the dominant thought of the com- 
posite mass in action. Here if anywhere is to be found the 
real spirit of the organization or inspiring body to which 
these units give allegiance. 

Hence, how significant to the student of history, how 
sinister to the friends of free democracy, and yet ho\. ri-^t- 
ural, we might say how inevitable, was the intolerance .n 1 
hatred of our constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech 
and assembly evinced by that mob of knights of the hier- 
archy. 

Its first idea was to defy the constitution and the muni- 
cipality of Haverhill by preventing freedom of speech and 
assembly. Next it sought to lynch the man who dared to 
criticize Rome and show how, while our public schools 
made for tolerance and hospitality, the parochial schools 
and Roman Catholic training made for intolerance, bigotry 
and lawless opposition to our constitution. 



Failing in the attempt to lynch Dr. Leyden, the mob 
further exhibited its hatred of the fundamental law of the 
nation and state, and its contempt for the municipality of 
Haverhill, by destroying public and private property and 
criminally assaulting Protestant citizens. 

But one thing remained to be done to give the finishing 
touch to this picture. 

One instinctive act on the part of the mob that would 
epitomize the true spirit of this Old World power that is 
warring on our democracy, and this finishing touch was not 
wanting, as will be seen from the following words of an 
eye witness as reported in >the Haverhill Gazette of April 
4th. 

"An effigy at one o'clock was strung up on the telephone wires 
and burned. A placard on the effigy read 'Free Speech.' Shouts 
from the crowd, 'Down with free speech' were heard frequently. 

With what startling fidelity did this mob instinctively 
reflect the spirit of the papacy throughout the vanished cen- 
turies, nay more, with what vivid realism did it here give 
emphasis to that notable yet characteristic exhibition of in- 
tolerance which leaped from the lips of Benedict XV, on 
November 21, 1915, when, according to the authorized Rome 
correspondent of the Boston Pilot, Cardinal O'Connell's of- 
ficial organ, the present pope described the distinguished 
American scholars and God fearing ministers who are rep- 
resenting the Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Luther- 
an churches and schools in Rome as "Emissaries of Satan 
and thieves who with full hands scatter broadcast lies and 
calumnies." 

This characterization is taken from the verbatim report of 
Pope Benedict's words as given by this authorized correspondent 
of the Pilot, written from Rome under date of November 27, and 
published in the Pilot of December 25, 1915. 

The effigy of free speech in flames and the howling mob 
like dancing dervishes shouting "down with free speech," 
was not only in harmony with the intolerance which Pope 
Benedict voiced last November, not only an eloquent exhi- 
bition of the Roman Catholic brand of loyalty to our flag 
and constitution, but it was also a perfect echo of the voice 
of Rome, sounding down the ages. 

As we read the newspaper story of this twentieth cen- 
tury instinctive voicing of the papacy of yesterday and to- 



day, another scene of Rome in action rose like a stately but 
tragic dream before us. 

We were standing again in the presence of papal 
thought in action, not now, however, a conglomerate mass 
of knights and other ''props of the hierarchy" in lawless 
rioting, no, we were in the presence of a general council 
of the church of Rome, the Council of Constance. 

The pope and emperor had given solemn guarantee of 
safe conduct to and from the council, to John Huss, one of 
the most illustrious professors of the University of Prague, 
and one of the purest and most lofty Christian thinkers 
known to the ages. He had been summoned to answer the 
charge of heresy. On arriving at the council, he was ar- 
rested as a felon, condemned and burned to death. His 
noble and inspiring books were also given to the flames. 

Here we behold the Roman Catholic church in supreme 
council, adding the crime of perfidy to her age-long, un- 
changing, implacable hatred of liberty of thought, con- 
science, speech and press. 

Truly Rome never changes. The same hatred of full- 
orbed freedom, which marked the Council of Constance, 
of the so-called infallible church in the year 1415, is seen 
in America in the birth-town of the poet of freedom, blos- 
soming and bearing the same Dead Sea fruit of intolerance, 
religious bigotry and hatred of freedom of thought and 
speech, as was in evidence in the elder day and as has 
ever been in evidence when the Church of Rome has dared 
to show her undying opposition to liberty of speech and 
press. 

IS HAVERHILL SORRY? 

We are told that Haverhill is sorry. Certain it is that 
the Protestant ministry has taken a firm and truly demo- 
cratic stand in favor of removing, as far as may be, the 
stain from the fair name of the city Rome has so dis- 
graced. But it is equally true that the executive authori- 
ties of Haverhill have failed to take the only step that can 
exonerate the city and measurably lift the stigma which 
Rome has placed upon her. So far the city officers have 
failed to invite the lecturer to return under safe conduct or 
adequate protection. 



On the disgrace of Haverhill, the Boston Transcript 
follows its fine editorial quoted in The Menace last week, 
by the publication of the following timely utterance. 

"Haverhill is sorry," we are told, for the disgrace that it put 
upon the Commonwealth in its riot of Sunday. It ought to be sor- 
ry, and none the less so because the man whoni it rioted against, 
and probably would have lynched if it had got its hands upon him, 
cannot stand to his guns. As the matter rests now, the mob has 
won against free speech, which could hardly be vindicated unless 
the original plan for the meeting at the Haverhill City Hall were 
carried out. It is a little hard to believe that the principle of free 
speech has come to that pass in Massachusetts — especially in the 
near neighborhood of the birthplace of the man who said, "I will 
not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, 
and I will be heard." The suppression of Le3^den's appearance 
was as much a manifestation of lawlessness as the mobbing of 
Garrison in the streets of Boston on Oct. 21, 1835, and deserves 
the same rebuke that American history has put upon that outrage. 

PROTESTANT MINISTERS SPEAK 

The entire body of the Protestant clergy of Haverhill, 
thirteen in number, appeared before Mayor Bartlett and 
Commissioner Hoyt, on April 7, to protest against the out- 
rage, the inefficiency of the police and the equally disgrace- 
ful failure of the department of justice to ferret out, ar- 
rest and punish the ring leaders of the mob. 

The Rev. Nicholas Van der Pyl acted as spokesman 
for the ministerial body. In the course of his address he 
thus voiced the sentiments of the united Protestant min- 
istry of Haverhill : 

'I speak in behalf and by the authority of the entire Protestant 
clergy of the city of Haverhill. 

"We deplore, and we feel indignant about the lawlessness 
which overran this city last Monday night. Our city has been dis- 
graced before the country, and only the people of this city can 
remove the disbrace which is ours today. 

"We are not bigots. We have the highest charity for all who 
worship God in their own way and according to the dictates of 
their own conscience. 

"But we are also American citizens, and we are the accredited 
representatives of the morals and religious interests of this city. 
We hold inviolable the great prinicples of freedom of speech and 
freedom of the press, subject to the laws of libel and incendiar- 
ism, after the fact, which have been established by all the people, 
and which only the people can abrogate. 



"A mob has overrun our cit}-. Churches have been broken 
into and desecrated by that mob. The homes of unoffending and 
innocent citizens have been stoned. In some cases lives have been 
threatened and placed in jeopardy. We cannot forget so long as 
the mob is permitted to be victorious, and its leaders glowing in 
the fact that they have trampled under their feet the most sacred 
rights of all pur people. We v^nll not forget until the principle of 
free speech has been impressively vindicated by the law-abiding 
element of this community itself." 

The attitude of the mayor, though not surprising in 
vieAV of his former action, was most discouraging to friends 
of American democracy and the upholders of the vital 
rights of free citizens. 

The mayor does not wish Dr. Leyden to visit Haverhill 
at the present time and thus lacerate the sensitive feelings 
of these criminal upholders of the papal system who have 
defied the constitution, insulted the state and city and com- 
mitted crimes against property and person. 

From his action it Avould seem that he thinks it more 
important to consider the wishes of the leaders of the mob, 
than to uphold the majesty and dignity of the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts in the only way that it can be 
upheld, by promptly righting the wrong, for surely he does 
not believe that the departments of justice and law en- 
forcemei.t of Haverhill and Massachusetts are unable to 
protect a citizen in the exercise of his constitutional rights. 
To delay action is to bow to the mob. To place criminal 
laAvlessness before the majesty of law and order, is to admit 
that these criminals are more powerful than the municipal 
and state government of Alassachusetts. Is such a position 
satisfactory to the citizens of Haverhill, and the voters of 
the state of Massachusetts? This is a question that must 
be faced, for it is fundamental in character and affects 
alike the integrity of free institutions, the honor of the 
state and the rights of every citizen. 

Is Haverhill to yield to executives who place the 
wishes of criminal upholders of papal hatred of free speech 
before the stern demands of outraged law and order to 
maintain at all hazards the fundamental rights of every 
free citizen as guaranteed by our federal constitution and 
the law of the state? Are the rioters, or the federal con- 
stitution to receive first consideration? 

That is the issue ! 

If the majesty of the law is to be vindicated no time 



sliould be lost in arranging for Dr. Leyden to return to 
Haverhill. 

In justice to Governor McCall, be it said that he is re- 
ported to have stated that he is ready to do his part in pro- 
tecting Dr. Leyden and the Protestant people of Haverhill 
who desire to hear him, from those who would flout the 
laws of Massachusetts and the constitution of the United 
States. 

RESOLUTIONS OF BAPTIST MINISTRY 

The Protestant clergy of greater Boston have registered 
their protest against the outrage in no uncertain tones. Per- 
haps the most notable of these were the resolutions adopted 
by the Baptist ministers of greater Boston on April 10th. 
They were read by Professor F. L. Anderson of Newton 
Theological Seminary and were, in part, as follows : 

"The plain, significant and undisputed fact is that an American 
citizen was denied the right of free speech, guaranteed by the 
constitution of Massachusetts, and that the authorities failed to 
protect him. That the mob was the result of a premeditated plan 
appears clear from the fact that the lecturer was not permitted 
even to begin. 

"We want to know whether this sort of thing is to continue, 
whether it is possible that we are entering upon an era of Catholic 
tyranny in this state, whether henceforth in this state criticism of 
one church, and only one, is to be indulged in only at the risk of 
life and limb. We demand of the cardinal that he publicly state 
his attitude and enforce his authority in such a manner as shall 
make Catholic mobs impossible in this state. If the cardinal fails 
to accede to our demand, we shall know how to interpret his con- 
tinued silence and shall act accordingly. 

"We demand that the public authorities bring to justice the 
leaders of the mob and that the courts impose suitable punish- 
ment. A failure here will prove the constitution and laws of Mas- 
sachusetts mere scraps of paper, and will forever debar our state, 
the nursery of liberty, from criticising those Commonwealths 
where lynching goes unavenged. We saj^ this advisedly, for, ac- 
cording to the beliefs of both our fathers and 'ourselves, liberty of 
speech is more precious than life. 

"But more than this is required. The only adequate reparation 
which can be made for this public outrage is a public atonement. 
This, to our mind, should take the form of an arrangement with 
Mr. Leyden by the citizens of Haverhill, by which he shall speak 
in Haverhill on the topic already advertised, and shall be pro- 
tected in his rights by the city and state at any cost. If he then 
transgresses the laws against slander or incendiary speech, let 
him be proceeded against by due process of law." 



GOV. McCALL ON THE ISSUE 



Governor McCall addressing- the Methodist ministers 
on April 10th, said: 

"We must keep free and open forums of truth where truth 
will be analyzed from all points of view. 

"A man can adopt the religion whiqh he chooses and no 
church or state has any right to interfere. There should always be 
separation of church and state. The basic principles of government 
cannot exist upon any such union." 

The most significant and encouraging event that has 
followed the papal riot, has been the breaking of the con- 
spiracy of silence which Rome has been able to impose on 
the Massachusetts press in recent years in regard to religio- 
politico questions that the hierarchy did not wish dis- 
cussed. 

The Boston Journal has, for the time being, opened its 
columns to a more or less extended discussion of the relig- 
ious question, and thus this democracy paralyzing silence 
— the Roman boycott against freedom of politico religious 
discussion in the press — has been broken. If the true Amer- 
icans of Massachusetts act with wisdom and imity this ad- 
vantage can be followed up and the old vital freedom of 
the press reestablished. 

EARNEST APPEAL TO PATRIOTS 



To the patriots of Massachusetts the present is big 
with possibilities, a crisis has been reached which calls up- 
on every man and woman of the commonwealth to join in 
redeeming the state from papal vassalage, and making old 
Massachusetts once again the apostle of democracy and 
the invincible champion of freedom. 

The hands on the dial mark another of those mighty 
struggles with Old World reaction, despotism and intol- 
erance which from time to time register crucial hours in 
freedom's ceaseless battle for the larger life and nobler 
idealism. 

Duty again summons every child of democracy to join 
the colors and display anew the lofty patriotism and high 
consecration to freedom that marked the lives of Adams, 



Otis, Hancock, Warren and the intrepid sons of liberty, 
which in the elder day rendered possible, if not inevitable, 
the birth of democracy, and that miracle of the eighteenth 
century, the victory of thirteen poor, little, w^eak, strug- 
gling colonies over the richest and most powerful nation 
of the earth. 

The oi)portuintv AN'hich en ,ies to n. 1")^ souls hut once 
in a life time is knocking at the door of the children of the 
old Bay State today. 

Be great ! oh sons and daughters of Massachusetts ! 
Rise to the highest traditions of the grand old common- 
wealth. Forget all thought of self, all petty jealousies and 
rivalries. Let the spirit of Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, 
Thomas Jefiferson and Benjamin Franklin enter your souls, 
then you will become noble enough to consecrate life and 
all life holds dearest, to the cause of liberty, and for the 
preservation of that fundamental democracy whose very 
existence is threatened by the powerful, perfectly organ- 
ized and financed Roman Catholic political machine. 

Never since the birth of this nation have free institu- 
tions been in deadlier peril than today, when with a gagged 
press and a nation-wide Roman Catholic boycott, the sub- 
jects of the pope are boldly attacking freedom of speech 
and assembly, freedom of religious discussion, freedom of 
press, our splendid non-sectarian free schools and the prin- 
ciples of strict divorce of church and state. 

Rome has been organized and in politics for years. 
She is today intrenched and ramified throughout all de- 
partments of government. And in and out of government, 
through her Knights of Columbus, her American federated 
societies, her Jesuits, as well as the hierarchy as a whole, 
she is battling against the fundamental principles of our 
federal constitution, and the great buhvarks of free institu- 
tions. 

This united war on democracy must be met by united 
American opposition! 

The hour for federated action has arrived. The success 
where it has been put in force has surpassed all expecta- 
tions. The duty, the unescapable duty, is clear. The politi- 
cal government of America must be rescued from the papal 
machine in order that the federal constitution be upheld 



and respected, law, order and efficient government main- 
tained, the public school system preserved and the assault 
on the principle of divorce of church and state by efforts to 
secure public funds for sectarian purposes sternly resisted. 
Never was an occasion more fateful than the present, 
let this "union for victory" come as the effective reply of 
aroused patriotism to the papal outrage at Haverhill. 



Editorial from the Christian Science Journal, Boston. April 
21, 1916. 

MOB LAW. 

The question of free speech is one of such fundamental 
importance to humanity that it is easy to understand the 
commotion which has been caused, in the State of Mas- 
sachusetts,, by the recent riots in Haverhill. The conten- 
tion that a mob with or without cause, is at liberty to 
usurp the prerogatives of the courts, and to substitute lynch 
law for official justice, constitutes, indeed, a precedent de- 
structive of all popular liberty. The history of liberty is 
very largely the effort of authority to restrain license. 
When the human passions are roused license is always apt 
to come to the top. The decision of the mob is the most 
uncertain of all unknown quantities, and if it is bowed to 
for a moment there is no limit to which its violence may 
not spread. Its temper was summed up admirably tAVO 
centuries ago, by William of Orange, in the historic phrase, 
"Hosanna ! today. Crucify him ! tomorrow." No man knew 
better than William the power of the mob'. He had seen it, 
when he was stadtholder, on that awful day when the citi- 
zens of The Hague foully murdered De Witt. That is the 
way of mobs, from the mob that tore Hypatia in pieces, on 
the sands of Alexandria, down to the mob which Jack Cade 
directed, seated upon London Stone, outside the gates of 
La Force, on the hideous September day, when the prison 
made its jail delivery to L'Abbaye. 

There is no rhyme or reason in the attack of a mob. 
It is just as willing to smash a great invention like the 
spinning-jenny, for fear of the displacement of labor, as it 
is to stuff the mouth of a Foulon with straw. It is just 
this that' makes the case of the mob in Haverhill so im- 
portant. If its action is overlooked, if it is connived at, 
worse still if it is justified today, there is no length to 
which it may not go tomorrow, and the example set, in 
Haverhill, may be repeated elsewhere at the expense of 
the very views which the Haverhill exhibition was intended 
to support. The mob is no logician, subtlety is unknown 



to it. It argues with an almost brutal frankness that what 
it is legitimate for it to do one day. must surely be legiti- 
mate for it to do on the next day, and it cannot be expected 
to decide the niceties which will enable casuistry to con- 
done or disown it at pleasure. Nor can the story of its 
actions be confined to one spot. The story of the action of 
the Haverhill mob has already gone round the world for all 
sorts and conditions of men to draw their conclusions from. 
Those of them who sympathize with the Haverhill rioters 
may be inclined to follow in the steps of the Haverhill 
rioters, those who do not sympathize with the Haverhill 
rioters may be inclined to deal in the argument of an eye 
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and there is never any 
lack of opportunity. 

It is just this which makes the defense of the Haver- 
hill mob, which has been set up, so peculiarly unfortunate 
and inept. To argue that the mob was justified, inasmuch 
as it was acting within its rights "in making a demonstra- 
tion, over the heads and against the officials at Haverhill, 
who violated their lawful authority," is to make the mob 
the judge of the legality of the situation created by the 
Haverhill officials. In plain English the extraordinary doc- 
trine is deliberately set forth, that any mob which con- 
ceives an act of a public body to be a violation of lawful 
authority is justified in taking the law into its own hands, 
and enforcing its own opinions by violence. Such a de- 
fense of the Haverhill mob, such a theory of law and order, 
such a definition of popular rights is surely the most un- 
tenable that has ever been put forth. It substitutes for the 
autocracy of an individual the autocracy of the mob, it even 
makes the passion of the ringleader the deciding factor 
over public law and order and public liberty. It places the 
powers of a Caesar, who is at least supposed to be trained 
in judicial restraint, in the hands of an ignorant and vio- 
lent body of irresponsible people whose passions are as 
inflammable as the highest known explosive. 

Worse than this, the defense begs the question, for it 
starts on the unproved assumption that the officials of 
Haverhill violated their authority in authorizing Mr. Ley- 
den's meefing. There is not a particle of evidence that this 
is the case. Mr. Leyden may be an intemperate speaker, 
whose utterances are calculated to produce a riot. Thous- 



ands of other speakers are going about the world with 
every intention of rousing to the nth the passions of those 
to whom they speak. But it is commonly held that the 
law is strong enough to deal with such people. The argu- 
ment that for twenty years Mr. Leyden has been indulging 
in such a course is an argument fashioned like the veriest 
boomerang. Because if the state authorities have been per- 
mitting Mr. Leyden to do this for twenty years, and if for 
twenty years he has been doing it without any very disas- 
trous result, it is the completest object lesson imaginable 
of the advantage of leaving him alone, and of the utter 
absence of any necessity for the recent interference of the 
mob. If there is one thing which over-emphasis on the 
platform can be trusted to do it is to frustrate its own ends. 
Twenty years of over-emphasis should have long ago re- 
duced Mr. Leyden to a negligible quantity. If, on the other 
hand, Mr. Leyden has something to say which he is entitled 
to say and justified in saying in public, and that is the 
only interpretation to be placed on the action of the state 
in permitting him to exercise this right for twenty years, 
then the action of the Haverhill officials was perfectly jus- 
tified in permitting him the use of the hall, and he himself 
was exercising a right which is his as a citizen of the 
country, and a repudiation of which, by the officials in Ha- 
verhill, would be tantamount to a repudiation of the right 
of freedom of speech. 

But, says the gentleman who has issued this extraor- 
dinary defense, a defense which really deserves the widest 
publicity, ''the policy of the Commonwealth and of all good 
citizens is to prevent unlawful conduct." Is it to be main- 
tained for one moment that it is lawful for a mob to break 
up. a meeting which has been authorized by the officials of 
the town in which it is held? Mr. Leyden's meeting having 
been authorized, the fault, if there was a fault, was with 
the officials and not with him, and were his methods ever 
so much to be deprecated, and were the actions of the of- 
ficials of Haverhill ever so wrong, either legally of mor- 
ally, can mob violence as an antidote to this be seriously 
held up as a panacea for unlawful conduct? The fact is 
that the laws of the state were at the disposal of the mob 
or their leaders for preventing Mr. Leyden from speaking, 
and for preventing the officials from authorizing .the use of 



the hail, if there was anything illegal in the conduct of 
either. If no resort was made to any legal process, it can 
only be concluded the failure was founded on the fact that 
Mr. Leyden and the Haverhill officials were pursuing a 
course as legal as the course which has been followed, in 
other parts of the state, during the twenty years which have 
been specified. 

The simple fact is that the Haverhill mob outraged in 
the frankest and most indefensible way the common right 
of free speech. It is not of the slightest, importance who 
Mr. Leyden was. what he was going to say, or what the 
effect of his words might be. He was entitled to speak, or 
he was not entitled to speak. If he was entitled to speak 
no mob had any right to prevent him. If he was not enti- 
tled to speak no mob had any right to decide the question 
and to enforce its own decision. In each event it outraged 
entirely the rights of free speech, the only difference is that 
in one case it outraged it rather worse than in the other. 

Extracts from an Editorial in the Haverhill Evening Gazette, 
April 4, 1916. 

The senseless plague of racial hate has had its fling and run-a- 
muck. Between two suns mob rule and destruction have stalked 
in the shadow of the seat of government; highways devoted to the 
peaceful pursuits of trade have become the promenade of a mad 
mob; quiet and peaceful home sections of this old Puritan com- 
munity^ that have been undisturbed si'nce the days of war have 
served for the bedlam of frenzied rioters, and civic control has 
given way to the rule of the guardsman's bayonet. 

All comprehension of intelligent citizenship and community 
patriotism was lost in the immeasurable misfortune marking the 
atrocious performances of the mob. Hundreds of people went in- 
sane as truly as any individual ever did. The wave of hysteria 
found expression in crimes against all law until it reached the 
level of the guardsman's gun and then broke to pieces with a 
crash that was felt at day-dawn in every community of the re- 
public. 

The Cjazette apologizes to the rest of the country for the men 
who have shamed Haverhill. The personal assaults and wanton 
destruction of public and private property and the disturbance of 
the public peace were infamous crimes that demand the immed- 
iate attention of a grand jury probe. 

This is no time for vain regrets. The unpardonable blunder of 
the gOAcrnment is history now; the costly error made by the alder- 
men"i5 on , the official records to stay. But the momentary rule of 



anarch)-, contemptible and lamentable as it may seem at this hour, 
will have served a splendid purpose if it shall have closed forever 
the base mouths that cast their poisoned saliva of creed contentions 
on the face of the community. 

The government has paid the price of its folly. Perhaps the 
future v^ill show that the experience was worth the price in pro- 
pounding the civic strength to take such measures and select such 
men for public service as will forever make impossible the re- 
enactment of a scene of beast-life that stains the cheek of a civil- 
ized and Christian community with shame. 



AMERICA 

My country 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing. 
Land where my fathers died ! 
Land of the Pilgrim's pride ! 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

Our Father's God to Thee, 
Author of Liberty, 

To Thee we sing. 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by Thy might. 

Great God, our King ! 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song! 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake. 
Let rocks their silence break- 

The sound prolong. 

My native country! thee, 
Land of the noble free, 

Thy name I love. 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



iS^''^ ^^ CONGRESS 




014 078 51 

LEST WE FOKUnT 



By JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 

Born in Haverhill, Mass., December 17, 1807 



Lift again the stately emblem on Bay State's 

rusted shield, 
Give to Northern winds the Pine-Tree on our 

banner's tattered field. 
Sons of men who sat in council with their Bibles 

round the board, 
Answering England's royal missive with a firm 

" Thus saith the Lord ! " 
Rise again for home and freedom! — set the 

battle in array ! — 
What the fathers did of old time we their sons 

must do today. 

O my God ! — for that free spirit, which of old in 

Boston town 
Smote the Province House with terror, struck 

the crest of Andros down ! — 
For another strong-voiced Adams in the city's 

street to cry, 
"Up for God and Massachusetts ! — Set yotir feet 

on Mammons lie ! 



Where's £he Man for Massachusetts! — Where's the 

voice to speak her free ? — 
Where's the hand to light up bonfires from her 

mountains to the sea ? 
Beats her Pilgrim pulse no longer ? — Sits she 

dumb in her despair ? — 
Has she none to break the silence? — Has she 

none to do and dare I 
O my God I for one right worthy to lift up 

her rusted shield, 
And to plant again the Pine-Tree in her banner's 

tattered field I 



This booklet published by request of the People, compiled from 
Press Reports, extracts, etc., tells the story of a great wrong that has not 
been righted. — The publisher still lives to "Cry aloud and spare not." 
— Isa., 58-1. 

Address all orders to EVANGELIST LEYDEN PUB. CO., 

41 Brastow Avenue, Somerville, Mass. 

Price 25c. Five Copies $1.00 



